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Viktoria K. Bradford
|born= |died= |species= |gender=Female |height=163 cm, 5 ft 4 in |weight=83 kg, 183 lbs |hair=Red-Brown, Dyed Brown |eyes=Brown |cyber= |allegiance= |branch= |unit= |rank=Sergeant |mos= |specialty=Mountaineering, Combat medicine, Long-range reconnaissance |battles= |status='KILLED IN ACTION' }} Viktoria K. Bradford, born Viktoria Kearsarge, was a combat medic and Sergeant in the and the late mother to commando Andra-D054. She spent much of her military career as a non-commissioned officer serving on Long Range Patrol and Recon teams or on on-call status, filling empty positions in depleted Ranger units. Having spent her entire youth on , Viktoria sought to see the rest of the galaxy for herself rather than reading or hearing about it from her museum-employed parents. She joined the out of high school instead of fulfilling a sports scholarship at the colonial university in . Passing through Airborne and Ranger qualifications, she achieved the rare distinction of becoming a female Ranger. She spent twelve years as an infantrywoman, serving on the edge of colonized space fighting both the and before retooling her operational specialty as a combat medic. During medical training on Sigma Octanus IV, she met an named Neville Bradford and started a brief relationship that coincided with their continued deployments until they married. They eventually had their child, Andra, in . Viktoria Bradford died fighting on the colony world of in while treating her teammates' wounds. Her untimely death became the catalyst for her husband's suicide and her daughter's induction into the SPARTAN-III Program. __TOC__ 'Biography' 'Bookworm No More' Born at the near-end of , Viktoria Kearsarge grew up an only child in a generational Sigma Octanus IV family dating back to the planet's original colonization. Her parents, two happily married museum curators in their forties, raised Viktoria in a sheltered, well-mannered environment where the greatest challenges and stresses came from studying for advanced placement school exams and time dedicated to extracurricular activities. Employed at the , Viktoria's parents often took their daughter along to their work instead of finding her a babysitter leading to the girl's early infatuation with sciences and histories. Getting a first-hand appreciation for dusty, old books and thousands of organism samples from across Human space really drew the young girl in and Viktoria developed an unparalleled love for reading from an early age. And when reading through the Museum's private library, Viktoria turned to wander around the display exhibitions in the museum proper for hours on end. Her favorite exhibit was found in a meteorite crater during Sigma Octanus IV's colonization. With the pseudo rock's strange etchings, it was one of the strongest early contenders for alien life and served as a baseline for the study of xenoarcheology, a field that Viktoria dreamed of going into one day. She spent days sketching and transcribing carvings onto datapads and scouring for the latest alien origin theories. However, many visits to the Museum of Natural History eventually took their toll and Viktoria's fascination with rocks and history dulled into boredom for the young girl who sought to go to the places she only heard, read, and dreamed of to seek out her own adventures. By late , at about the age of seventeen, Viktoria Kearsarge had developed into a very different young adult from her youth. She fought her parents for more freedom every step of her teenage years, requesting permission for ever more dangerous and precarious activities. Turning from soccer and augmented reality sports, she picked up youth rock climbing with a sports club at the edge of the city and she dreamed of joining the , getting on a starship, leaving Sigma Octanus IV in the dust, and going to alien worlds to kill the enemy amongst the stars. The had entered its sixth year. Viktoria had long put away dreams of becoming an alien researcher, the aliens had come themselves to destroy humans and now she wanted to do her part. Posters of and human colonies hung up in her room were replaced by recruitment posters for the . Only a picture of Viktoria and her parents standing next to the prodigal alien researcher remained from her childhood. Still, high school was nearing its end and Viktoria and her parents were beginning to think about the immediate future. The Caracas Colonial College's rock climbing team actively scouted out Viktoria but neither the college recruiters, her sports coach, nor her parents could convince her to take up an athletic scholarship leading to much strife in the Kearsarge household. However, by , Viktoria made up her mind and visited the local military recruitment station and demanded information on how she could visit different planets and still fight the Covenant wherever she could. While the Marines looked attractive, the knowledge from the previous year regarding the disappearance of her childhood hero, Doctor Ellen Anders, aboard the gave her a healthy fear of interstellar travel. Armed with her concerns, she learned from a recruiting station attendant that she could strive for the UNSC Army Airborne or Army Rangers if she still wanted to travel but keep her feet close to the ground. Intrigued by the offer and warned of the challenges ahead of her, she signed on the dotted line and returned home to inform her parents that she was heading to basic training. Predictably, her parents were livid and refused to talk to her for a week before begrudgingly accepting their daughter's decision. Even so, Viktoria didn't look back and shipped out from Sigma Octanus IV for where she'd have a better chance to fold into the ranks of the UNSC Army Airborne and Army Rangers. 'Itter Rock Encounter' 'Cyrus VII Stalling Action' Three years after completing medical training, Viktoria deployed alongside Army Rangers to the contested human colony of Cyrus VII in . Assigned to a local Army Ranger unit, the Twelfth Battalion Rangers, Viktoria and other arriving combat medics provided much needed medical expertise after several major confrontations greatly depleted the battalion's numbers. Joining the Twelfth's C Company, Viktoria spent the first two weeks of June hanging around Fort McChrystal's medical facilities carrying for the wounded and slowly dying. The Twelfth, still waiting for fresh troops from off-world to bolster their depleted base, was delayed a week from returning to the Cyrus VII frontlines, particularly the contested Bronze Peak Mountain Range where Covenant ground forces were looking for holes in the UNSC defensive line. Unlike most battles fought between UNSC and Covenant forces, the Defense of Cyrus VII involved a prolonged campaign while Covenant starships refused to appear and break the stalemate. While Viktoria had no particular answer for why the Covenant didn't resort to the typical tactics of mercilessly blasting through UNSC battle lines, she suspected the planet held some kind of strategic value to the invading aliens and was content to dig in and make them fight for every bit of dirt. When the third week finally arrived with fresh troops and supplies, the Twelfth returned to the Bronze Peak Mountains via road convoy as the Covenant forces continue to dominate the skies and major UNSC troop movements had to be regulated to periods of inclement weather and night time. While the Twelfth had been resting, the prestigious A Squadron of Task Force Alfa-82 had been filling in for them, holding off the Covenant in a major stalling action using guerrilla-style tactics to keep posturing enemy forces hunkered down. Arriving at the forward command site, Combat Outpost Charlie-Seven, by the end of the month, Viktoria and her fellow new arrivals were greeted by the successful but emotionally-downtrodden Alfa-82 led by then-Major Colton Bryson. Bryson's men had been assigned to survey and hold over 150 square miles of inhospitable mountain terrain originally intended for the Twelfth's original 500 Rangers along with attached support elements. Instead, Alfa-82 spent three weeks alone holding the battlespace with less than 100 Rangers in their unit. Somehow, in the chaotic mess of unpredictable weather, cold nights, and sporadic long-range engagements, Major Bryson hadn't lost a single soldier under his command. A near-impossible feat, especially in the impassible Grade IV and V mountains. The late arrival of Viktoria and the Twelfth Battalion Rangers became an immediate morale boost to Major Bryson's men, bringing fresh troops and supplies in the night transitioning from June into July. However, much to the disappointment of Alfa-82, they were not being relieved, only bolstered with reinforcements. 'Minab Deployment' Originally slotted for emergency deployment during the Siege of Paris IV in after was attacked by Covenant forces, Viktoria's Ranger unit was told to stand down after the colony fell in June that same year. Instead, she received five more months of extended leave before deployment orders were sent out for her next combat tour. On October 1, 2549, news arrived: she was going to on the edge of territory still claimed by the Unified Earth Government as the Covenant onslaught only continued to worsen month by month. Neville Bradford, using his connections at the Office of Naval Intelligence, confirmed echoes of Slipspace ruptures in neighboring systems and grew extremely worried over his wife's predicament even though she'd been on missions of the like several times before. Viktoria shrugged off her husband's concerns, pointing out the number of Covenant planetary attacks she survived. With the Covenant War entering its twenty-fifth year, Viktoria had become desensitized to the combat and had adopted an optimistically-nihilist outlook. If she was to die, she would die fighting. She'd seen so much war now that she knew her time would eventually come. Not even her marriage or her growing daughter could convince her to get out of deployments or consider retirement. On October 5, 2549, the Bradford couple jumped on public transportation to the Caracas spaceport while their daughter stayed home with a babysitter. After exchanging goodbyes, Viktoria joined with her fellow UNSC Army personnel aboard a UNSC troop transport craft for Minab, leaving her family behind. Arriving on Minab, Viktoria was informed that her unit combat assignment would entail coordination and training for the local defense forces along with advanced reconnaissance mandated by the local . Based out of Camp Iskandar on the outskirts of Minab's capital city, Kynur, she spent most her days training local Army personnel in field medicine techniques and participating in civilian mountain rescue operations. The first few months in Minab were dedicated to a series of field exercises, designated Operation: KYNUR MOUNTAINS 2549, in the city's neighboring mountains. While the scenarios focused on defense posture, combined arms tactics, Viktoria spent most of the supposed engagements dozing off under armored vehicles or goofing off with her unit far from the attention of superior officers. The worst parts about participating in the months-long exercises were the lack of day passes, the paranoia towards surveillance drones checking in on the Rangers, and the constant moving around because commanders wanted to keep the Rangers mobile. Eventually, security relaxed and the trade of a prized and aged whiskey set with an drone operations unit lessened the surprise probability that officers would check in on Viktoria's squad. For the rest of the exercises, Viktoria and her fellow Rangers rode up and down the mountainsides in their and vehicles, providing the necessitated participation in the training routines with the occasional simulated engagements through the nights and days. On their off time, the Rangers skinnydipped in mountainous rivers and climbed low-lying peaks. By December and January, the training winded down, returning the training units back to Camp Iskandar and regular schedules recommenced with day passes into Kynur. Viktoria spent many weekends partying at the local bars and visiting the local attractions, occasionally returning to wilderness exercise zones to get back into nature. Just like so many deployments, Minab was predictable and mundane but Viktoria appreciated the lack of Covenant forces constantly hanging over her head in orbit. She continued to send weekly updates back to her husband and daughter about her wellbeing and wished them a good Christmas and a happy birthday for Andra. Then July 2550 came around and everything changed. 'Camp Iskandar' Like many of the Human-Covenant War's major colonial sieges, the Battle of Minab suffered from dubious information regarding key events and casualties during and after the conflict ended; like many lost colonies, Minab became another victim of the proverb, "Glassed planets have bad records." The exact date of Camp Iskandar's destruction was hotly debated years after the Covenant War ended but early in the morning before Minab's local star crested the horizon, Viktoria and her squad awoke to the screams of proximity warning alarms and trailer-mounted rotary cannons blasting away at the skies over the joint operations military encampment. Apparently, that night's Army Ranger recon element failed to report that a group of Covenant attack ships had identified Camp Iskandar as their next target and parked themselves in the skies overhead. With Banshee bombers strafing overhead and unprepared UNSC ground troops rushing for cover as limited Covenant landing party breached the base's exterior defenses, engaging with human soldiers in close quarters. Too busy picking up after the wounded and dying, Viktoria took up medical duties at the camp's medical triage center while her teammates rushed to the building's roof to snipe and blast away at Covenant ground forces. The camp's power grid collapsed before morning's first light but fuel fires and hundreds of flares served to light up what was left from the initial assault on Camp Iskandar but the Covenant ships eventually moved on from the decimated base. By morning, only the personnel that hid in the subterranean bunkers below the command and medical centers were spared, including elements of Viktoria's team. Without support and no means of contacting other UNSC forces, the survivors of Camp Iskandar chose to remain in the ruins of their former base until repairs could be made to the power grid and communications array. Without power and supplies, it was unlikely that many of the grievously wounded would be able to walk or even survive unless help arrived soon, emphasizing the need to re-establish communications. They never managed to request support; a second Covenant patrol arrived days later to the general area. Even with the remaining defense systems, Camp Iskandar put up a meager fight. Viktoria and her Rangers defended the base's bunker entrance for as long as possible when -led survey teams swept through the base a second time after knocking out the remaining automated defenses. A glassing beam burned through the area, cutting into Minab's surface until the subterranean bunkers were melted along with their occupants. Viktoria Bradford was vaporized instantly, huddling over one of her bloodied teammates after they took a round to thigh. Automated data reconnaissance drones at high altitude surveying the impartially glassed landscapes around the Kynur mountainside were able to confirm several military IFF transponders in the remains of Camp Iskandar before the Covenant glassed the base in its entirety. However, it wasn't until days later that a Naval Intelligence analytics team could parse through the data and confirm the casualties and among them, Viktoria Bradford. On October 11, 2550, the UNSC Armed Forces confirmed her demise and informed her family of the grave development. 'Character Assessment' 'Physical Appearance' Viktoria Bradford stands a small deviation below the average height for a healthy human female from the , however, she made up this lack of stature through bulking up on muscle. Best described as well-toned, her limb muscles are visibly conditioned from her teenage years as an amateur but talented rock climber. She has remained exceptionally fit into her late thirties through occasional rock climbing alongside workouts as regular infantry and then as part of the Army Airborne and Rangers. In her youth, Viktoria did not take well to skin modifications like piercings or tattoos out of personal preference and in respect to her parents' wishes. Upon joining the UNSC Army, however, she joined an entirely different community and many of her tastes shifted. Encouraged to express herself in an ever strict environment, finding ways to rebel and define herself within regulation became a hobby that developed into temporary arm tattoos and transformative ink. By the end of her first completed combat tour, she was sporting a pair of heavily tattooed biceps with images of UNSC eagles and splatter-brained aliens. Her tattoos only got more extravagant and wild as time went on. Physically, Viktoria is a somewhat attractive woman of short stature and fits the mold of a typical infantrywoman well. Brown eyes match her sunkissed reddish-brown hair until she dyed a more neutral brown, a style she maintained into late 2550. Her dyed hair was personally chosen to match her husband and daughter's naturally darker hair. Continuing with her youthful tendencies, she avoided jewelry and piercings and took a liking to tie her hair in a braided ponytail, often shifting in length with her deployments. Short hair while home and on base, long and unruly while behind enemy lines. In addition, she took to more pragmatic and simplistic clothing like tank tops, shorts, and tights. Viktoria much preferred anything she could easily throw an armored harness over and could occasionally be seen wearing civilian getups while deployed to more remote combat theaters. Given her rough and tough lifestyle, Viktoria sports scars and shiners from her adventures, however, many stories have been forgotten given her many incidents. A defining scar line ran from her forehead to just above her right cheek from a near-death encounter with a Kig-Yar scavenger whose knife nearly gouged out her eye. A dozen or more scars can be traced to falling off cliffs, whether as a kid or during a combat deployment. For all her successes under adversarial conditions, Viktoria has a tendency to attract more than her fair share of deadly encounters, only to walk away with an adrenaline-laced smirk. 'Personality Assessment' Raised in a sheltered, structured environment as an only child by her museum employed-parents, Viktoria had very few childhood distractions preventing her from pursuing good grades and a multitude of extracurricular activities. However, it also made her yearn for her own adventures away from her the monotonous routine of day-to-day life. Years spent reading and wandering in the Museum of Natural History taught Viktoria much about the many worlds colonized by the Unified Earth Government but also motivated her to see them for herself. Adventurous, scientific women like Ellen Anders became Viktoria's childhood heroes and role models for her own developing, rebellious side. By the end of high school, Viktoria would often argue with her parents about the personal freedoms allowed to her as her personal interest grew more and more daring, such as her passion for mountain climbing. Previously interested in theoretical sciences like the study of alien civilizations, when the Human-Covenant War started, her priorities quickly changed from studying to fighting the invaders. As soon as she graduated from high school, Viktoria signed up for the UNSC Army, turning down a college sports scholarship and infuriating her parents as predicted. In many ways, Viktoria enjoyed challenging the expectations of her teachers and parents, a key trait of her rebellious and thrill-seeking personality. At first, glance, joining the military didn't appear to be the right path for Viktoria due to her anti-authority tendencies, often arguing with other recruits and talking back to instructors during basic training. However, she found further enjoyment in the strictness of the UNSC Army as she often laughed off the organization's absurdity, much to the collective humor and horror of her peers. Her disrespect for authority got her demerits, however, her overall performance in basic training earmarked her as a motivated soldier looking for new, ever more daring challenges. Twelve years as an Army infantrywoman was spent chasing after more and more difficult challenges, passing through Army Airborne and Army Ranger qualifications by the time she was an adult. The rare achievement of being a female Army Ranger also went to her head, giving her a serious ego boost and making her popular with her Ranger squadmates as "another one of the guys." Even so, her strength of character could prove to be a liability at times. Her impulsiveness often led to a high-speed lifestyle that few boyfriends could keep up with and encouraged a liberalness with sleeping around or moving too quickly into relationships, leading to burnout. She got lucky with her first and only husband, Neville Bradford, who was laidback enough to match and accept her impulses as they got married and had a daughter within a year. Her attachment to others can often be fleeting making her better suited to long-distance, on-and-off relationships like the one she shared with Neville, however, the one thing he could never stand was her nonchalance towards the topic of death. After spending years bouncing from deployment to deployment, she conquered her fear of dying and took to the topic with a laidback disinterest. She expected she would die during the Human-Covenant War and ultimately, she did. It's possible this might have made her death on Minab easier, however, it took a toll on her husband who only outlived her by two months before committing suicide. 'Nicknames and Callsigns' *"Vicky": The default, shortened nickname favored by Viktoria's friends and family outside the military. Neville Bradford often used it during their marriage and became one of Andra's first vocalized words. *"Mountain": Inspired by her maiden name's mountain origin and her passion for rock climbing, Viktoria earned the nickname upon passing Army Ranger qualifications. Between those that often hear the nickname and note Viktoria's below-average height, many bar fights ended because adversaries underestimated her. *"Brad Bro": Bestowed upon her by her squadmates after marrying Neville Bradford, the new nickname hinted at Viktoria's reputation for getting into bar fights. Jokingly among her teammates, she seemed more masculine than she let on. *"VICK": Viktoria's TEAMCOM four-letter desigation. 'Relationships' 'Andra-D054' Viktoria Bradford lacked a formal relationship with her daughter, Andra-D054, while alive. Besides Andra's birth, maternal leave, and two rare exchanges between parent and daughter from 2545 to 2550, the two interacted very little and were barely acquaintances. However, Viktoria still managed to leave a number of messages during her frontline deployments, many of which Andra recovered after graduating from four years of SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Much of Andra's memory of Viktoria came from reexamining those video memories left by her mother; when approached about her post-SPARTAN-III deployment options, one item involved was Andra's former surname. Reminded of her father's abusive behavior weeks before his suicide, she refused to take up his name and demanded her mother's maiden name instead, becoming Andra Kearsarge. A further investigation into Viktoria's past revealed her character and military background, inspiring the young Spartan to chase after her mother's best-perceived qualities including loyalty and passion for military service, and seeking high achievements like how Viktoria succeeded in both Army Airborne and Army Ranger qualifications. While not as adventurous or personable as her mother, Andra did take after Viktoria's athletic prowess along with physical traits such as dark brown hair and skin complexion. Viktoria probably would have shown humor and annoyance had she known her daughter's best-known nickname amongst Spartans was "Doll." When she was alive, she wanted to raise Andra as resilient and strong, a trait she and Neville Bradford both attempted to impart onto their daughter sparingly but early on. 'Neville Bradford' Born and raised on Sigma Octanus IV like Viktoria, Neville Bradford joined the UNSC Navy out of college to pursue a career in communication and network technologies. Passing with top honors in college courses and in the upper bracket of his Officer Candidate School graduating class, he was soon recruited into the Office of Naval Intelligence as a Signals Intelligence officer and analyst. Proactive in his community and a well-rounded individual who enjoyed taking care of others, he coincidentally encountered and hit it off with his study partner, Viktoria Kearsarge, in a basic lifesaver's course hosted by the UNSC Army's combat medic program. Study sessions developed into study dates and over a brief period of time, the officer and Army Ranger got engaged and married in 2544, having Andra Bradford, their only child in 2545. Attracted by their mutual interest in caretaking and high achievement, Viktoria and Neville meshed well as individuals and their brief marriage from 2544 to 2550 proved healthy and faithful on both ends. However, Viktoria's constant deployments worried Neville and he often voiced dissent for her nonchalant reaction to new combat assignments. Her demise during the Battle of Minab destroyed him emotionally. Driven by overwhelming guilt in the belief that he didn't push Viktoria hard enough to retire from military service, he believed he was the reason Andra no longer had a mother and he no longer had a wife. The loss of his wife led to many snowballing circumstances including the physical abuse of his daughter, insomnia, drug addiction, job troubles, and his eventual suicide. 'See Also' 'Related Pages' *Andra-D054 *UNSC Army Rangers 'Literary Appearances' *''Halo: Itter Rock'' Category:UNSC Army Personnel Category:UNSC Personnel Category:UNSC Category:Females Category:Army Ranger